U.S. Pat. No. 6,879,964 (Sauter et al.), hereafter, “the '964 patent,” which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a single investment company that issues one or more classes of shares that are bought from and redeemed with the single investment company at a net asset value (conventional shares) and also issues one or more classes of shares that are listed for trading on a securities exchange and that are bought and sold at negotiated market prices (exchange-traded shares). The invention described in the '964 patent has been commercialized by selected fund companies of The Vanguard Group, Inc. which now offers exchange-traded shares (referred to as “VIPER shares” in the '964 patent) as a separate share class in a plurality of its previously existing equity funds.
It would be desirable to provide a similar class of exchange-traded shares for investment companies that invest some or all of their assets in fixed income securities. However, there are many complexities to extending the invention of the '964 patent to these types of investment companies. The present invention addresses such complexities so that these types of investment companies can also provide a class of exchange-traded shares.